Opinion: The U.S. embassy in Israel is now where it should be, in Jerusalem

by Boris Epshteyn, Chief Political Analyst

(Sinclair Broadcast Group)

EDITOR'S NOTE: Boris Epshteyn formerly served as a Senior Advisor to the Trump Campaign and served in the White House as Special Assistant to The President and Assistant Communications Director for Surrogate Operations.

WASHINGTON (Sinclair Broadcast Group) - The American embassy in Israel is now in Jerusalem. President Donald Trump recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel late last year.

At the embassy opening, speeches by senior advisor to President Trump, Jared Kushner and by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu focused on this move being a promise kept by President Trump.

American politicians have been promising to move the embassy to Jerusalem for decades.

Congress passed the Jerusalem Embassy Act in 1995. The act recognized Jerusalem as the capital, but gave the president the ability to waive the action every six months.

There was a belief that allowing the Israeli people to decide where their capital is would somehow destabilize the situation in the Middle East and hurt the chances for peace. Well, if you look at the last three decades, the status quo has been nothing but violence and instability.

Sadly, there were violent clashes at the border between Israel and Gaza on Monday. The violence was reportedly caused by the terrorist group Hamas calling on Palestinians to breach the wall into Israel to protest the opening of the American embassy.

Here is the bottom line: with the issue of Jerusalem as Israel's capital off the negotiating table, the United States will work to propose a realistic peace plan that Israel and the Palestinians can live with. If the Palestinians choose to not engage because Jerusalem is recognized as Israel’s capital, that means they were never serious about peace to begin with.